US President Joe Biden is “doing just fine” with a “mild respiratory illness” following his Covid-19 diagnosis, according to the White House Covid-19 response coordinator, who told news networks on Sunday that the president is “feeling well” three days after testing positive with mild symptoms.
Dr Ashish Jha told ABC’s This Week on 24 July that the president “had a great day yesterday” and was “feeling well” as of late Saturday night. Mr Biden tested positive on 21 July.
“This is a president who is double vaccinated, double boosted, getting treatments that are widely available to Americans, and who at this moment has a mild respiratory illness – this is really good news,” he said.
He told CBS Face that Nation that he checked in with his team late on Saturday and said that the president “had a good day yesterday.”
“He’s got a viral syndrome, an upper respiratory infection … and he’s doing just fine,” he added. “So we haven’t gotten any updates this morning, but through last night, he was feeling much, much better.”
Mr Biden completed a second full day of the antiviral treatment Paxlovid and will contine the treatment regimen “as planned,” Physician to the President Dr Kevin O’Connor reported on 23 July.
The 79-year-old president – who has received both doses of a two-dose vaccine, as well as two additional “booster” shots – was experiencing sore throat, a runny nose, loose cough and body aches, while his pulse, blood pressure, respiratory rate and temperature are normal, according to Dr O’Connor.
His oxygen saturation “continues to be excellent” and his lungs are clear, Dr O’Connor said on Saturday.
The president was likely infected with the BA5 subvariant of Omicronthe current dominant variant in the US, according to Dr O’Connor.
The BA5 subvariant of the highly contagious disease accounts for nearly 80 per cent of recent infections in the US, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.